True Adventurer, Part 1: Live-Reviewing LEGO The Lord of the Rings

As we enter the holiday season, it's not uncommon for most Americans to have a lot on their plate. I am happy to say that at the moment I am no different. The Baseball season just ended, and rather than be content watching the World Baseball Classic qualifying rounds, I've taken it upon myself to create an extensive sortable database of every significant player in the Major Leagues this season. I was two teams away from completing said database when I came to realize that Part 3 of R. Kelly's masterful hip-hopera Trapped in the Closet is set to come out next week on IFC. So naturally we had to celebrate the occasion with a screening of Parts 1 & 2 accompanied by the drinking game associated with them: Trashed in the Closet. Also, I'm deep in the process of creating a Batman: The Animated Series video power hour - not because I'm unhealthily obsessed with drinking games, but because I consider making power hours an art form. And this is all on top of my day-career of producing unscripted television. If you're interested in seeing how that's going, you should tune in to A&E at 10pm on Sunday, December 2 for the uplifting competition show Be the Boss.

But sometimes there's an event that immediately circumvents every other project an obligation in one's life. Such an event was the arrival of my anxiously-awaited copy of LEGO The Lord of the Rings from Traveller's Tales and Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment. As soon as I was able, I eagerly fed the disk to my PS3 and dove into the experience. Right away, before you're even prompted to Press Start for the main menu, you hear Galadriel's immortal first lines lifted straight from the movie's audio: "I amar prestar aen... the world has changed..." Upon formally creating your file and starting the game, a cinematic takes you through the rest of the prologue, almost exactly as it appears in the movies except with LEGO minifigs instead of real actors. Of course you get the bits of LEGO humor - one of the seven Dwarf lords raises up a mug of (not)beer instead of his ring of power and one of the nine humans drops his on the ground - that are just subtle enough to remind players that they are not in fact watching a straight shot-for-shot LEGO adaptation of the films.

When gameplay starts, you are still in the world of the Prologue, controlling three of the Second Age's most distinguished characters: Elrond (of whom there was talk of receiving an exclusive minifig with the purchase of a "Special Edition" of the game, but to my knowledge that promotion never came to pass), Elendil the High King of Arnor (whose sword, Narsil, has the ability to destroy "Morgul" LEGO objects, the first taste of the character-specific abilities that are the hallmark of the LEGO games), and his son Isildur. The three parts of the tutorial-esque first level take you from the epic conclusion of the Battle of Dagorlad, through Isildur cutting the One Ring from Sauron's hand, to his refusal to cast the Ring into the fires of Mount Doom at Elrond's behest. Right around the time that we entered the Cracks of Doom (don't laugh, that's what it's called in the book too), a horn blast informed me that I had collected enough LEGO studs to achieve "True Adventurer" status, returning to the term from LEGO Indiana Jones; LEGO Star Wars used "True Jedi" and in the LEGO Batman series you could become a "Super Hero," but they all mean the same thing.

Let me now take a pause from reviewing the game to write perhaps the nerdiest thought I've ever had: the events of the prologue take place in the year 3441 of the Second Age. Here's the entry on that year from Appendix B, the Tale of Years: "Sauron overthrown by Elendil and Gil-galad, who perish. Isildur takes the One Ring." Now towards the beginning the Fellowship of the Ring movie, we see Gandalf travel to Gondor to do some research into the matter of Frodo's ring by way of reading some ancient scrolls. As he mutters what he's reading out loud, we hear him say:

                    GANDALF
              (reading)
          The year 3434 of the Second Age...here
          follows the account of Isildur, High King
          of Gondor, and the finding of the ring of
          power.

Well, mishter Peter Jachshun should have read Appendixch B a little closher, cuz it CLEARLY SHTATESH that Shawruon washn't overthrown until shix yearsh later, OBVIOUSHLY!!1 I sure hope shomeone got fired for THAT little blunder. That is all...

Anyway, after the prologue - for the completion of which I earned the trophy "The Strength of Men Failed" - I was awarded the characters Elendil and Isildur, plus three more mystery folks that I could buy. I can already see the economics of this game taking shape. As I choose to continue the story, the cinematic takes us to the night of Bilbo's long-expected party. The star of The Hobbit has already decided to leave The Shire for one last adventure, and we see him reluctantly agree to leave his ring behind before he walks out onto the road. Immediately after that, Frodo comes in, and just as immediately after that, Gandalf explains the danger he's in and sets he and Sam out on his quest. No passage of 17 years between the two events. No confusion on Gandalf's part as to the true nature of Frodo's Ring. Dramatic break from the source material, but you know what? I have no problem with that.

Since becoming a story producer, I've come to realize that sometimes the best story you can tell isn't the most faithful retelling of what happened in reality, but rather an amalgamation of truth, exaggeration, and fiction. The story flows much quicker this way (even if it makes Frodo a much younger character) and gets players into the first open world section of the game: Hobbiton. Now this is next to impossible to prove, but long ago, back when the LEGO Lord of the Rings licensing agreement was nothing but a twinkle in Kjeld Kirk Christiansen's eye, I jotted down some preliminary ideas of how I'd like to see a potential LEGO Lord of the Rings video game play out. This was back in the day where they only had hub worlds from which you could access all the levels, such as the Mos Eisley Cantina from LEGO Star Wars II, or the Batcave from LEGO Batman. I wasn't sure if the technology would support it, but I thought the only way to adequately express the scope of Middle Earth was to have multiple hub worlds after each level, so that we could have the characters spend time in all the different locations that don't necessarily lend themselves to a whole level's worth of gameplay.

But at this point in my playthrough, all I had seen was Hobbiton, where Frodo and Sam could run around the countryside, using the special items in Sam's inventory to light LEGO fires, dig LEGO dirt patches, and grow LEGO plants. The inventory is another new feature in this game, which really helps expand the possibilities, however it's a little frustrating in that I couldn't figure out how to put an item away once I'd pulled it out. From there we meet Merry and Pippin, and enter the second level, which consists of sneaking away from The Black Rider (which is also the name of the level). But this sneaking is interspersed with a short mini-boss fight where you play as Gandalf as he does battle with Saruman. Another short word about the timeline: Appendix B CLEARLY SHTATESH that Gandalf is imprisoned in Orthanc (Saruman's stronghold) on July 10 of the year 3018 of the Third Age, where he is held prisoner until September 18. Frodo and his party don't leave Hobbiton until September 23. In my opinion, it's another good change to have these events happen simultaneously.

The level ends with a frantic race to the Buckleberry Ferry, where we control Frodo as he flees the Black Riders and runs straight towards the camera (think Batman fleeing from Killer Croc in Arkham Asylum). After a cinematic introducing us to Bree, I was absolutely thrilled to find that my idea of multiple hub worlds was indeed applied to this game! I was delighted that I was on the same page as the game's eventual developers, but somewhat disappointed that my obviously good ideas didn't directly impact the development of the game, except for inasmuch as they became part of the collective unconscious...

In Bree I was fortunate enough to have a friend join me, so I could check out the split-screen multiplayer mode. We were able to embark on a couple of sidequests, one of which involved forging items at the blacksmith's shop in exchange for upgrades that were available to buy. I opted not to purchase the "Quest Finder" for 50,000 studs (a little less than half my bank at the time) since I was pretty sure I'd want to save my studs for more interesting prizes ahead. Next time I'll pick up with how multiplayer and the events of Weathertop translate into an actual gameplay level. Until then, never stop adventuring!